Ang Lee has one other important film under his belt: "Sense and Sensibility", with a brilliant screen play reworking from the novel by Emma Thompson. It seems that this recipe worked well between director and screen play writer James Shamus. This is not your average common garden variety run of the mill Chinese martial arts film. Indeed, the film has the fingerprints of Lee's brilliant directing all over it, and an eerie parallel to "Sense and Sensibility" both in its skilful directing of the actors as the wide, sweeping visual feast of landscape and the rich texture of the "still" scenes. Like an artist, Ang Lee has painted some scenes which, were it not that one is watching a moving picture, would uncannily resemble a still life. There is a stillness, an economy of movement about the characters that screams "aliveness" or "life", a great sense of movement and emotional attachment which is present in only the viewer's perception while he is watching a moving, incredibly simple tale. In "Sense and Sensibility", there is a scene in which Marianne Dashwood plays a hauntingly beautiful piece on the piano in the drawing room, but her playing is viewed from the door (Marianne is almost silhouetted in the distance) by her sister Eleanor, through whose eyes the viewer takes in the scene. Almost intrusive is Edward Ferrars' joining Eleanor at the door, unsettled when he sees her tears. Beautiful. Very, very beautiful.
In "Crouching Tiger..." take a simple scene in which the two main characters sit in an open plan lounge at a table. Hardly any suggestion of movement, except when they talk, yet one feels that one is watching a surreal interplay and storytelling happening. I believe the hallmark of great film making lies not in intricate and innovative tale-telling with super special effects (such as we have seen in "The Matrix") that would make "Dreamworks" proud, but in the very simplicity of 'painting' for the viewer the essential story. It was the narrator in "Life is Beautiful" who said in the first words to be heard in that film, "this is a very simple story, but not an
easy one to tell". So "Crouching Tiger..." is a simple tale of love, repression, duty and the desire for freedom, told with a flair, a sweeping vista of images and 'still lifes'. This is sometimes evident in "Sense and Sensibility", and in "Crouching Tiger..." finds its final settlement with the wonderful communication in the silences between Li Mu Bai (Chow Yan-Fat of "Anna and The King") and Yu Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh), our hero and heroine.
A young aristocrat who is to be wedded soon to an equally rich young man, dreams of freedom, the desire to walk a path in which there are no restraints, but which carry a great responsibility because as a warrior she would be bound by rules of duty, honour, a certain philosophy. A Hudan warrior Li Mu Bai 'hangs up' his sword, the "Green Destiny", and presents it to the governor of Beijing. It is this sword that is stolen by the young Chang Zhyi (her name in the film sounded like "Shalom"). This young woman had been trained by her handmaiden, the evil Jade Fox, in the Hudan martial arts, and it is the task of Mu Bai and Yu Shu Lien to retrieve the sword from evil hands. Mu Bai sees in Shalom the immense potential to be trained as a warrior, and this becomes his new goal, his second vision.
The other parallel lies in "Crouching Tiger" itself. It is interesting to see that while another viewer may wonder why Shalom (the young bride to be and Hudan disciple of Jade Fox) and her great love could not be our principle love interest, I have this justification: This is a story of repression and honour and duty. Repressed sexual tension between our senior lovers, honour and respect of a dead man's memory, and clinging to a philosophy in which Li Mu Bai (one strongly suspects that he stopped being a warrior because he wanted to be to Shu Lien what he had dreamed of being: the love of her life) says: "I had this vision, and I was engulfed by a great radiance, and all that I felt, I felt a certain sorrow, a great pain" (I'm paraphrasing here). When Shu Lien asked whether he had received enlightenment, he replied that he could not, there was so much sorrow. While Mu Bai and Shu Lien are hopelessly drawn to one another (the repressed sexual chemistry is brilliantly shown in mainly their eyes), it is their respect of her dead fiancé's memory that keeps both of them apart, and his duty to his Hudan philosophy. They are warriors, and they walked the road of a kind of freedom not (or rather, never) experienced by the young Shalom. In a certain way she has, but more about that later. As warrior they honoured another kind of duty: to their craft, to a cause. Central to this key theme is the visual or outward symbol that wings as a thread throughout the film: Mu Bai's "sword of honour", the Green Destiny. His sword, like in the great tradition of the Samurai warrior, was an extension of his person. He had killed many foes with it. Even after relinquishing it, he hankers to have it back, to hold it once again in his hand to feel 'an old friend' fitting snugly, and, to kill Jade Fox.
Throughout the film the viewer is as much charged as the two lovers, and as frustrated to see them make some move. And indeed, it is this very stillness I spoke of earlier that marks this relationship. Except for the end scene, only once in the entire film do they touch, and when it happens, one feels a certain draining of that tension, yet, at the same moment, everything they are to each other and what they will ever mean to each other is in that quiet despair, that deep sorrow the viewer experiences everytime Mu Bai and Shu Lien appear in the same frame. There is something terrible, a terrible doom that surrounds this couple and which the Green Destiny is to play out finally.
Our younger pair of lovers, I believe, become the physical, the outward manifestation of love between the two seniors. The younger couple (Shalom is betrothed in a union of political expedience to some rich young man) expresses for the viewer what they desired to see in the older couple. Chou Yun-Fat is utterly melancholic as the former Hudan warrior, and Michelle Yeoh as the equally battle weary, stoic, but strong and independent woman (sneered upon by the traditional views or stereotypes of Chinese women as subservient and respectful to their men). Shalom and her lover become that extension, that release of sexual tension between Mu Bai and Shu Lien. This is the major parallel of the film, I believe.
The poetry of the film lies mostly in the execution of the martial arts. Did I expect to see fighting? Yes, to a certain extent. But, while I've seen many Chinese films (most with martial arts, from "Snake in the Eagle's Shadow" to the brilliant, artistic "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Judou") in this film Ang Lee has taken martial arts to unimaginable heights. At first glance one is sceptical of flying and floating and gliding on surfaces one imagines only flies can walk upside down on, and one tends to think: ah, yet another gimmick. But let me say: At probably its most elevated level the Hudan form of martial arts (in this film, whether created or real) has transcendental experience and mysticism at its core. It is this expression one sees in the fighting between Mu Bai and the young up-and-coming warrior Shalom. Hudan is not normally open to women, but Mu Bai is willing to accept her as his charge. Those scenes are poetic, truly surreal ballet which finds its zenith in their absolutely stunning pas de deux in the forest, if I can be so lyrical about it, that had me gasping more at the unreal elegance than at seeing who wins this round.
The film abounds in visual imagery and symbolism. There are the forces of good an evil and of whom Jade Fox (the old woman) is the evil, dressed in black while Mu Bai represents the good. In every scene he is dressed in white or near white garments. In an eerily Star War'ish parallel, Jade Fox (the Darth Vader of this film) and Li Mu Bai (who unquestionably represents Obi Wan Kenobi) battle for the heart and mind of the young Shalom, new Hudan warrior. The young Shalom, the disciple of evil, trained by the evil Jade Fox is thrown between these two extremes. In the most exquisitely beautiful pas de deux, young Shalom is confronted with the good (when they 'dance' amongst the green tree tops of the evergreens) and from that moment her journey to the light starts as she is initiated to a new realm.
Mu Bai finds enlightenment finally, that which he had been seeking so long, and only in finally admitting in his feelings, does he find that release. In her dying moments Jade Fox finds a release, but it is one tinged with the same bitterness and revenge she had in her life. This is another parallel I have seen. But for those who still intend seeing the film it would be telling to expound any more than I have, for the viewer should note particularly the "green" destiny of the principal players.
The music of the film is fitting. One notices that all the fight scenes are accompanied by the thrumming of a drum, as if it increases the energy and rising tension in seeing a winner (of sorts). But it is the haunting melody of the lone cello that accompanies most of the film scenes. Played by the brilliant Yo-yo Ma (what can I say? The man plays a Stradivarius cello), the cello added to the melancholy feel of the film.
With "Crouching tiger" Ang Lee richly deserves being recognised for his work. It is a film in the great tradition of the best Chinese films I've seen, one I enjoyed with the passion and fervor of seeing cinematic sweep and visual beauty that touched every sense of mine.
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Production Year: 2003 - Martial Arts - Director: Paul Hunter - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott, James King, Karel Roden
Production Year: 1972 - Martial Arts - Director: Bruce Lee - Original Language: English\Cantonese\Chinese - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Chuck Norris, Robert Wall, Jon T. Benn
Production Year: 1991 - Martial Arts - Director: Tsui Hark - Original Language: Cantonese - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Donnie Yen, Jet Lee, Rosamund Kwan, Yuen Biao, Mok Sui Chung
Production Year: 1981 - Martial Arts - Director: Kenji Misumi, Robert Houston - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Kayo Matsuo, Minoru Ohki, Akiji Kobayashi, Shin Kishida, Masahiro Tomikawa, Tomisaburo Wakayama
Martial Arts - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Bruce Lee, Sho Kosugi, James Ryan, Jim Kelly, Jimmy Wang Yu, Bolo Yeung, Christopher Lee
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